Marriott Criminal Investigation – Drip Pricing & Its Impact on Travelers

Over the last few years, the Marriott brand has been involved in numerous scandals that have led to lawsuits and criminal investigations against the group.

Many of these instances involve issues between Marriott hotels and the buildings that these hotels occupy. The most recent legal battle that Marriott is involved in is with a Polish company that accuses the hotel giant of financial embellishment.

On top of those accusations, the Polish company claims that Marriott’s refusal to allow a billboard to be placed on the hotel building increased their COVID-induced losses. These types of cases tend to fly under the radar because they don’t directly affect hotel guests.

Then, there’s the Marriott criminal investigation regarding drip pricing. This specific issue affects tourists staying at Marriott directly. Currently, there have been at least three cases filed against the company.

Two of these cases were filed by California residents who felt cheated by Marriott’s pricing policies. There was also an investigation into the matter led by the Attorney General of the state of Pennsylvania. Each of these cases took place in different years, meaning that this practice is one that Marriott has allegedly been involved in for some time.

The Two California Cases Complain About the Same Issue

In the 2019 case of Hall v. Marriott International, Inc., a consumer filed a lawsuit against Marriott for the practice of “drip pricing.”

The complaint, in this case, claims that the hotel tricks potential guests by presenting a smaller price at the start of the reservation process. When the client ultimately goes to pay the bill, they see that numerous “fees” are added to the final price tag.

This consumer mentions that these fees can be labeled as resort fees, destination fees, or amenity fees. The extra charges have been known to add up to 95 dollars to the total price per night at a Marriott hotel. According to the complaint filed in 2019, this is a clear case of drip pricing in which the only beneficiary is the Marriott brand.

Only two years later, in 2021, another lawsuit was filed against Marriott Hotels, citing the same drip pricing accusations that the company faced in 2019. The biggest difference between these two lawsuits was the fact that in the 2021 instance, sites like Expedia and Travelocity were also named as potential accomplices of Marriott.

The resort fees that some Marriott hotels charged were also hidden when booking rooms from these sites until the final page, where the customer is expected to book or pay for the room.    

A Marriott Criminal Investigation in Pennsylvania Confirms the Practice

Marriott found itself facing similar allegations of drip pricing a second time in 2021. This time, the office of the Attorney General for the state of Pennsylvania served as the accuser. When the case concluded, the Attorney General put out a statement confirming that Marriott was known for the practice of drip pricing in the industry.

The statement reads, “Marriott often practices “drip pricing” where resort fees, destination fees, facility and amenities fees, and other similar fees, are not listed in the total price of the hotel room until a consumer is in the final steps of the purchasing process, or upon check-in.”

In true Marriott fashion, the hotel chain failed to meet the deadline to pay for the fine that it was given after losing the case in Pennsylvania. This made the issue linger into the current year when the brand agreed to pay $225,000 to the state. A fee that now featured a higher rate due to the brand’s failure to make the first payment.   

Other Legal Issues Regarding Similar Practices

Consumers in the US were not the only ones who suffered from Marriott’s drip pricing. The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association singled out Booking.com and Marriott for alleged drip pricing practices. Booking.com was at the forefront of this particular issue due to its announcement that it would charge an extra fee for hotel rooms booked through its site.

The association also singled out Marriott as a hotel brand that was known for its drip pricing practices. This particular instance did not lead to a Marriott criminal investigation because, at the time, the practice was not necessarily banned by local laws.

What the Hotels’ Association was looking to do was to use their leverage to stop their member hotels from using the Booking platform.

Marriott’s hotels in the Caribbean or even in other parts of the world may be negatively affected by the malpractices of their parent company. What the Caribbean Hotels’ association alleged at the time was that many of the Marriott hotels in the region were run by franchisees.

Many of these independent hotel owners were not in on the drip pricing malpractice. At the end of the day, the reputation of the corporate giant could be affecting their business partners’ bottom line.       

Is This a Practice Marriott Still Takes Part In?         

The first rate that appears directly on the Marriott site for any hotel room that potential guests could be interested in does not include all the rates and fees. What the rate does include is a smaller-sized legend that shows the resort fee for that particular property. In a popular city like New York, the resort fee is typically around 25 dollars.

Guests do have the option on the site to see the full rate for that hotel room before they complete the check-out process. That option is essentially one of the filters that people can use while navigating through the Marriott site. The best thing that potential guests can do to avoid any issues is to activate that filter and have the site show the full price.

When the filter is not active, what’s shown is the base fee and the resort fee by its side. That is still a bit misleading because, for example, a night at the W hotel in New York is shown to cost 357 USD plus the 25-dollar resort fee.

When the filter that shows the full price is active, though, guests can see that the actual price they’ll be paying for that hotel is 413 dollars.

The brand’s current practices still flirt with the concept of drip pricing. At least, potential guests at Marriott hotels can now find the actual price of a room before they complete the check-out process.